“Lightning in a bottle” and “my Cinderella story” are the
two characterizations Lou Diamond Phillips, the prolific actor-director turning
55 today, applies to his big-screen breakout role as
singer/songwriter/guitarist Ritchie Valens in writer/director Luis Valdez’s
fondly remembered musical biopic La Bamba (1987). Although on the
film shoot the non-Latino Phillips was himself already seven years older than
the 17-year-old Valens was when he perished in that shattering “day the music
died” plane crash that occurred 58 years ago this month, the future star – 30
years hence – of Stand and Deliver, The
First Power, Young Guns, The Dark Wind, Courage Under Fire and Longmire was at that early career moment
a mirror of Valens, a sweet-natured, fresh-faced presence off-stage and a
committed and hot-wired firebrand in love with working things out once the
camera was turned on. For the film’s subsequent legion of fans, its dual
storylines of family struggles and music-making innovation were fused together
by the performances of not only Phillips as Ritchie but also Esai Morales as
conflicted half-brother Bob, Rosana de Soto as his hard-working mother Connie,
Elizabeth Peña as his half-sister Connie, Danielle von Zerneck as Ritchie’s
first love Donna Ludwig (the classmate who inspired the hit song named after
her) and Joe Pantoliano as Richie’s manager/record producer Bob Keane, with Los
Lobos rocking powerfully on the soundtrack in a stunning recreation of the
title tune. For Chicago Sun-Times critic
Roger Ebert, “The
best things in it are the most unexpected things: the portraits of everyday
life, of a loving mother, of a brother who loves and resents him, of a kid
growing up and tasting fame and leaving everyone standing around at his funeral
shocked that his life ended just as it seemed to be beginning.” La
Bamba marked for Phillips the beginning of a career full of unexpected
things that would include more musical odysseys (a Tony®-nominated turn in the
1996 Broadway revival of The King and I,
and another regal reign as Arthur in a touring production of Camelot), directing for television and
film, songwriting and teaching. Whatever the role or production capacity,
Phillips remains grateful for the door La Bamba opened. As he told
interviewer Vanessa Erazo at Remezcla.com
in November 2015 around the release of The
33: “I’ve
felt accepted from day one, and it goes back to La Bamba. Some people raised their eyebrows, yeah, but for
30 years now like you said, some people look at me like an honorary Latino, or
an honorary Lakota or Cheyenne. I think it’s because everybody knows that I’m
sincere, and where I’m coming from is a place of respect. And I’m not trying to
cash in on being ‘ethnic’ you know? I mean these are the roles that I’m right
for physically and when I take on these roles I try to get them right.” Indeed,
right from the start, as proved by Twilight Time’s extras-packed hi-def Blu-ray
of the birthday honoree’s La Bamba, available here: http://www.screenarchives.com/title_detail.cfm/ID/27856/LA-BAMBA-1987/.